Sunday, 6 January 2013

Giving Away my Copy of the Pali Canon

(It occupies more than one box.)

I struggled for many years without owning my own copy of the Pali Canon, and I'm now giving away the only copy I ever owned (after a very short time with it). Although published in Sri Lanka, this edition spent more time in a warehouse in Thailand than it spent on my desk. I am now giving it away to another student, who will be able to work with it (while I won't).

That is, of course, heartbreaking.

On a much smaller scale, it is also heartbreaking to be throwing my box of books on Cree into the garbage --because I still do not know a single student of the language whom I could give them to.

I have another small collection of books on Hokkien (閩南語) that, similarly, has no possible recipient, and so will end up in the garbage.